A pilot project to put video cameras in Los Angeles Police Department vehicles won the endorsement of two key law enforcement officials Tuesday, with the president of the Police Commission and Police Chief Willie L. Williams each saying he supports moving ahead with a test program. "When the world looks at videotape and looks at law enforcement, the world thinks about Los Angeles," Commission President Gary Greenebaum said. "I think we need to move ahead on this."

It started out as just a speck on a photograph of a man who threw a brick at truck driver Reginald Denny at Florence and Normandie avenues in the opening hours of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. But when Leonid Rudin subjected it to a complicated computer algorithm and a slew of complex mathematical equations, that speck--originally less than 1/6,000th the size of the total photograph--was revealed to be a rose-shaped tattoo on the arm of the man, later identified in court as Damian Monroe Williams.

The U.S. Geological Survey this week released a report assessing the tsunami risk in California. The research simulated a 9.1 quake off the Alaska coast that would send damaging waves to California. Here are some highlights. 1) What are the parts of Southern California most vulnerable to tsunami flooding? The USGS study listed several areas, including Marina del Rey and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as well as the low-lying coastal areas extending from the ports to Newport Beach.

"What transpires in the court room is public property. " Writing those words in 1947, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a principle so intrinsic to our national character that it predates the Declaration of Independence. America's founders believed that justice was facilitated by openness. In 1774, the first Continental Congress specifically stated that trials should occur "in open court, before as many of the people as choose to attend. " Their reasoning was that public openness would ensure the honesty of judges, witnesses and jurors, who could not "injure [the defendant]

Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose agreed to buy Kiss Technology for $61 million, setting up a battle with TiVo Inc. in the market for digital video recorders. Kiss, based in Denmark, sells digital video disc players and recorders and digital TVs.

Microsoft has given up its quest to sell millions of set-top boxes that connect TVs to the Internet. Its new goal is to sell millions of set-top boxes that can digitally record two channels simultaneously, pause and rewind a show as it's being broadcast, instantly replay any scene, provide an interactive program guide . . . and incidentally, connect a TV to the Internet.

Two companies, TiVo and ReplayTV, are out with similar but not identical products generically known as "personal video recorders." These are nifty devices that allow you to pause, rewind and fast-forward broadcast and cable shows as though you were watching a videotape. They work by recording the TV signal onto a hard disk just like the one inside your computer and spooling it onto the screen with a couple of milliseconds' delay.

Facebook has released an update for its iPhone and iPad app that, among other features, lets users send each other recorded voice messages. To access the feature, select name, tap the "+" sign and select the mic icon. Hold down the red record button that appears and begin speaking. When done, simply let go of the button and the message is sent. To cancel the message, slide the finger away from the record icon. The voice message feature was introduced earlier this month in an update to the Facebook Messenger app, which is dedicated solely to the message component of the social network.

Robbers not only made off with more than 1,000 videocassette recorders from a department store warehouse early Monday morning, police said, they also left a trail of wreckage behind. "They obviously didn't have a professional truck driver with them," Garden Grove Police Sgt. Bruce Beauchamp said of the group that robbed the Montgomery Ward & Co. facility at 7300 Chapman Ave.

Think of it as a Christmas bonus. That's the way the Rev. Curtis Page is looking at the unusual accessory that came this week with a computer and videotape recorder delivered to his Kirk o' the Valley Presbyterian Church in Reseda. Page was happy enough to get the equipment, which was recovered by police after being stolen in an Oct. 29 break-in at the church. But the minister wasn't expecting also to be handed what could be the solution to the burglary.